Ever since it was announced that Microsoft Flight Simulator would be using streaming to fill in parts of the game world there has been a general worry in the community in regards to what kind of internet connection you’d need to properly run the game.
This has been revealed thanks to the release of the system requirements for the title. While this usually focuses on hardware, bandwidth is an important requirement here for this unique game.
To that end the specifications are provided for three nebulous experiences: minimum, recommended and ideal. Unfortunately no specific resolution or frame rates are tied to these three tiers.
The full specs are listed below but the internet speed is of particular note. Minimum asks for 5Mbps, recommended comes in at 20Mbps, and the top of the pile ideal settings is pegged at 50Mbps.
Looking at the rest of the required specs and there are some other oddities, also in the ideal tier. Not only is an RTX 2080 required, but so is a whopping 32GB of RAM. It’s generally considered that 16GB is the gold standard nowadays, so twice that is a big ask.
It’s also specified that the 150GB of storage required for the ideal settings is an SSD, as opposed to a regular mechanical hard drive, a distinction not made for the other two tiers.
As always we’re aware that specifications provided by developers, especially at the high end, are sometimes overblown. That being said you will need a rather beefy PC, complete with an expensive monthly internet line, to run Microsoft Flight Simulator at full tilt.
Minimum
- CPU: Ryzen 3 1200 | Intel i5-4460
- GPU: Radeon RX 570 | NVIDIA GTX 770
- VRAM: 2GB
- RAM: 8GB
- Storage: 150GB
- Bandwidth: 5Mbps
Recommended
- CPU: Ryzen 5 1500X | Intel i5-8400
- GPU: Radeon RX 590 | NVIDIA GTX 970
- VRAM: 4GB
- RAM: 16GB
- Storage: 150GB
- Bandwidth: 20Mbps
Ideal
- CPU: Ryzen 7 Pro 2700X | Intel i7-9800X
- GPU: Radeon VII| NVIDIA RTX 2080
- VRAM: 8GB
- RAM: 32GB
- Storage: 150GB SSD
- Bandwidth: 50Mbps
